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Matthew 2
The Magi Visit the Child and Head Home
9After the Magi had heard Herod, they went on their way, and the star they had seen when it rose went ahead of them until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw the star, they were overjoyed. 11On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to go back to Herod, they returned to their country by another route.
The closing verse of this section on the Magi offers a profound truth with its words they returned to their country by another route. The path they took to get there wasn't the path they took afterwards. I won't be the first, I'm sure, to suggest to you that the goal of Christmas is to reconnect us to Christ in such a way that we find ourselves willing to walk a different path, take a different route than perhaps we have been taking.
Something within each of us needs to change this Christmas. Some part of our commitment to Christ needs refining. Some aspect of our obedience to his call needs fine tuning. Some feature of our behavior in daily life needs to become more Christlike. None of us are all we need to be in our faithfulness as followers of the Christ of Bethlehem.
Correspondingly, we must not forget that we are called to walk a different path, take a different route than the world at large. We who call ourselves Christians must live differently than the world. We always live as seed planters of the ways of the Kingdom in the midst of a world filled with actions and attitudes which diminish rather than enhance God's intentions for humanity.
For me the Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi is a primary way for me to let Christ take stronger hold of me and for me to honor his life and his witness. Most likely for each of us there are elements of this prayer which define our area of needed change; the place where we need to start intentionally walking a different path this Advent-Christmas 2011.
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
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